Mobil 1 is a Euro oil product that Mobil U.S. has to pay rights to sell in North America. As originally stated above, it is a different formulation from the U.S. Mobil 1 oils. It is the only Mobil oil sold in the U.S. that meets the BMW LL-01 specs.

Only mobil oil that's been through ll-01 certification.

amsoil is a great example, which has oils that exceed the certification requirements, but they just don't have certifications. Their products simply state which specs the oil is compatible with.

Not every company feels good paying a 'nanny tax' to a private regulatory body - which is in no way empowered to regulate anything. Especially when it's 300'000 usd per cert + you're locked into your suppliers.

I don't think a single sample will give you sufficient data to make a reasonable claim like that. HOWEVER, I do believe that you are on to something here. There are a BUNCH of oils out there that BMW has not had the time to test and certify for various reasons.

Finding a good oil is easy! Finding a GREAT oil for your engine is the tough part. Two things worry me about that oil sample:

1. Iron level. Too high at value of 10 ppm. I am used to seeing Iron level of 5 ppm out of Valvoline SynPower 5W-40

2. TBN. Too low at a value of 3.8. You should not accept anything below 5.0 TBN for a used oil. Valvoline SynPower 5W-40 TBN is 10 when poured fresh. One of the highest TBNs I've seen for widely available oils. Only Amsoil tops that with TBN of 11, if my memory serves me right.

I just want to make it clear that I am not trying to promote any specific brand of oil. I am only sharing my experiences with the forum as I've played a lot with oils and have done lots of analysis with BlackStone Labs.

P.S.:
Oils for diesel engines are specifically designed to hold and neutralize the soot that is inevitably a product of any diesel engine. I am not totally convinced that trapping those chemicals (from the soot) in the oil is good for our petrol engines.

they did make some of the best. when castrol won their case about group 3 being synthetic, mobil 1 changed their US formula to group 3 because it was cheaper. us mobil 1 now suffers from bad shearing especially with regards to direct injection engines.

0W40 is not thinner than 5W40, except for when the oil is cold and you want it to be thin. BTW, I use a 5W40 to

Acutally, i have heard over an over how it behaves less than a 40 weight when hot--something like a 35.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasillalov

Mr. 5,

I don't think a single sample will give you sufficient data to make a reasonable claim like that. HOWEVER, I do believe that you are on to something here. There are a BUNCH of oils out there that BMW has not had the time to test and certify for various reasons.

Finding a good oil is easy! Finding a GREAT oil for your engine is the tough part. Two things worry me about that oil sample:

1. Iron level. Too high at value of 10 ppm. I am used to seeing Iron level of 5 ppm out of Valvoline SynPower 5W-40

2. TBN. Too low at a value of 3.8. You should not accept anything below 5.0 TBN for a used oil. Valvoline SynPower 5W-40 TBN is 10 when poured fresh. One of the highest TBNs I've seen for widely available oils. Only Amsoil tops that with TBN of 11, if my memory serves me right.

I just want to make it clear that I am not trying to promote any specific brand of oil. I am only sharing my experiences with the forum as I've played a lot with oils and have done lots of analysis with BlackStone Labs.

P.S.:
Oils for diesel engines are specifically designed to hold and neutralize the soot that is inevitably a product of any diesel engine. I am not totally convinced that trapping those chemicals (from the soot) in the oil is good for our petrol engines.

I agree that a single sample won't be as good as multiple testing but it's a start. I also believe that it's a great start to compare to other oils like the castrol edge that I'm using right now.

Will you post your analysis so I can compare?
Remember that this oil was used extremely hard.
This was not used for a casual run to the store.
This was revved to 6500 rpm over and over for 4 20 minute sessions at Laguna seca.

You do bring up a good point with the soot though. I'm going to check with that but the last I looked, this oil IS API SM, SJ, and SL approved, which is the same approval as the 0w40.

It's important to understand that many oil suppliers offer several different chemical formulations of 5W-30 oil and only those that are approved to the BMW LL-01 specs meet your new vehicle warranty requirements. So read the label before you buy.

Hey guys,
I just realized something on that report. They were saying that I had an M 30 engine and a 3.5L. I emailed them back and let them know that I had an N54 so the universal averages changed...for the better.

That's interesting! I wonder what is the predominant type of oil that Blackstone has in their sample database? It would give us some idea how Mobil1 is fairing to other brands of oil used in N54 engines.

If I am go guess, the people who usually send oil to Blackstone for analysis are enthusiasts like us and some of them may have used different oils..

1. Iron content: you can see it gradually dropping from 30 ppm all the way down to 5ppm.

2. Flash Point: well above 400F and again, a gradual improvement over time.

3. Lead: Again, massive drop compared to Mobil1

That's the kind of stuff that really made the decision for me to stick with Valvoline. Unfortunately, BMW still has not approved the 5W-40 grade although it does meet and exceed the BMW specs. Its a sad thing, because the 5W-40 comes with TBN of 11 and all other grades are TBN of 7 or 8.

For me, the good news and hopes are that Valvoline Synpower 5W-40 is currently PENDING approval by BMW. This is a fantastic oil and can be found anywhere in the autostores.

No air filter problems. I've been using OEM filters changed every 10 miles religiously! There were no mechanical problems/repairs done to the engine. Absolutely no work was done on the engine or any of the engine supporting systems.

No air filter problems. I've been using OEM filters changed every 10 miles religiously! There were no mechanical problems/repairs done to the engine. Absolutely no work was done on the engine or any of the engine supporting systems.

that's impossible trackrat knows everything about everything when it comes to engine oils for bmw.

Thanks for posting this up. Did you do an oil analysis on the BMW Synthetic? I'd be interested to see how it holds up.

I plan to switch to Castrol EDGE 5W-30 after my next change, and will also do the oil analysis, but that's a long time away

I already have Castrol EDGE 5W-30 in our 2 other turbo cars, a VW Beetle 1.8T, and an Audi TT Quattro. I'll be performing a used oil analysis on those cars at the 10K mark. For those who don't know, Castrol EDGE just became available in the states in 2009. It's a great oil formerly available only in Europe.

Reason I'm doing it at the 10K mark is because I've been changing my oil at the 7.5K mark. I asked myself one day, 'why 7.5K, and why does everyone say 7.5K?' It seems like 7.5K is repeated so often, it somehow became THE STANDARD (like 5K was for previous cars using Mobil 1). But no matter how much I searched for used oil analysis reports, I couldn't get any data. In comparison, there were a lot of used oil analysis for 5K synthetic oil changes on older generation cars....which is different from our car, because of our 15K oil change interval.